This is syndicated content from the Cornwall Chronicle. All rights reserved.
Cornwall is bustling with wildlife. Bears and bobcats bound across fields and sometimes into cupboards. We are constantly thinking about how we can coexist with nature. Consider the beaver, nature’s civil engineers. They play an important role in the ecosystem, creating habitat for a range of marsh creatures.
The beavers’ dam building prowess created a magical wetland at the Rattlesnake Preserve that attracted all kinds of bird life. A pleasure to behold. However, with heavy rainfall, those same dams also caused the water to back up on Cogswell and Rattlesnake roads. That, in turn, caused the town to periodically remove the beavers. But thankfully for the wetland and waterfowl, the beavers kept returning.
Cornwall Conservation Trust searched for a way to bring peaceful coexistence between the beavers and the town roads. That led to Mike Callahan and his Beaver Solutions Flexible Pond Leveler™ which CCT has installed at Rattlesnake Preserve.
This flow device, which works on gravity, creates a permanent leak through the beaver dam that the beavers cannot detect or stop.
So, after a very dry summer, bring on the rain and we will be able to let the beavers do their thing.
—Bart Jones,
President, Cornwall Conservation Trust, Inc.
